This disclosure relates generally to dies for cutting, creasing and perforating sheet materials. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to steel rule dies for cutting, creasing and perforating cardboard and paperboard for making folded carton blanks.
The current method of steel rule die making require a shop equipped with laser cutting, band saw, metal forming and or CNC equipment to manufacture dies. The steel rules are arranged in a predetermined pattern such that the operative surfaces of the steel rules form the desired creasing and cutting patterns in the carton blank. The steel rules are retained either between blocks held in a steel frame or chase by wedges or quoins (block dies) or within slots formed in a rigid die board (jig dies) which, as with the block dies, may be held in a chase with quoins. The male die retaining the steel rules cooperates with the female die, also called the counterplate, to make the impressions in the carton blank.
The process takes days to several weeks of lead time to manufacture a die, which then must be shipped to the customer. The current process of die making to manufacture boxes is geared towards long production runs of boxes and is not cost effective for short runs of boxes or even prototyping of boxes. However, the steel rule die once made makes possible the rapid cutting of box blanks, but the die itself takes time to make.